Chapter Text
To make things fun, we’re starting this fic off with a songfic chapter! You can consider this the theme song for the fic itself, and feel free to theorize below on what everything means! With that being said, please enjoy.
~=~
“Miracle” begins playing.
As the song begins, we see an overhead shot of Beacon Academy, and see Ozpin and the professors looking down from Beacon Tower on a team consisting of Cinder, Neo, a human wearing the White Fang’s crest, and a pale girl with red eyes.
“Time and time again, it seems we’ve reached the point where all our dreams are crumbling all around us”
During this sequence, we descend to Vale, where a green-haired child runs through alleyways, and an orange-haired vagrant in a hat and cane leaves a shop with a bag full of lien.
“Every outcome unjust”
Roman Torchwick aims his cane at the camera and fires, and the picture fades to reveal the next scene.
“Every step it seems has led us further from our goal instead”
We see Team CNMN sparring against a team of silhouetted upperclassmen, their leader is a human with metallic wings.
“Our triumphs haven’t mattered”
Team CNMN is scorned as the upperclassmen walk past them.
“We’re drifting ever backward”
Amber is revealed to be one of the upperclassmen, and we pan back to see she’s reflected in Cinder’s eyes, a look of rage contorted across her face.
“And we’re running out of time!”
We see the Rose family being looked through one of Weiss’s seers, looked into by Scarlet, who is older and now has her hair tied back in a wolf tail. Yang is wearing the Signal uniform, and Ruby is learning how to fight.
“Nowhere near the finish line
And it’s growing ever clear”
We transition back to Beacon as Grimm Liquid flows through the campus.
“That a reckoning is near
And we’ll have to make a choice”
Cinder clutches a small form close, Neo clashes against Roman Torchwick with a grin on her face.
“Is this path right?”
The red-eyed girl is consumed by brambles and sinks into the Grimm fluid.
“Or is it made of lies?”
The White Fang human uses dust and semblance to pull the girl out, and hugs both Cinder and Neo.
“We’re looking in ourselves trusting in the light”
Team CNMN faces a tidal wave of Grimm Fluid, and they draw their weapons. The White Fang human has a pair of serrated fans, and the red-eyed girl has a torch of flaming dust.
“A Miracle is all we need
But there isn’t one in sight”
The wave covers the screen, and pans up to see the desert Kingdom of Vacuo.
“Each and every passing day
Our world’s in further disarray
Confidence descending
Where’s our happy ending?”
Amity Arena hovers over Shade Academy, revealing the Vytal Festival. Team CNMN stands before the Kingdom.
“On the path, but still, we strayed
Our aspirations quickly fade!”
The White Fang Human walks through Vacuo, and she sees three faunus on the horizon (a pheasant, a monkey, and a dog), and she reaches for them, but the Vytal Festival Crest appears on the ground, dividing them.
“Desperation’s risin’
On hopeless bleak horizons,”
Team CNMN stands in Amity Arena, but the four are as divided as the four sections.
“Every life is on the line!
Can’t wait here for a sign”
Ketos hovers overhead, casting a shadow over Cinder. From the darkness, Grimm arms reach out for her.
“And just like the blood that’s shed
Every cancer’s sure to spread”
We see a horde of insectoid, unknown Grimm crawling over Amity Arena, and an “M” symbol appears on the screens in a hexagon. We zoom in on the screen, and the image shifts.
“And the time to act is short
We know inside”
It reveals a news program about a dig site in Mountain Glenn, then shifts to Team CNMN back in Beacon, and the screen shifts to be there with them.
“We’re born to do what’s right”
Neo stains against an unseen adversary, pointing Silence forward threateningly.
“Desire to preserve life
Is powering the light!”
Cinder is beaten back by someone, and the red-eyed girl sends brambling vines toward her foe!
“We’re praying for a Miracle,”
Wisps of Grimm streak through the air, creating an aura of dark around Team CNMN, but they don’t look afraid.
“But for now, we’ll stand and fight”
Cinder lurches toward the screen, and we pan deep below ground, where a technological headquarters reveals Grimm in containment, containers of Grimm Liquid, and a map of the northwest continent. As the music grows ominous, we see four silhouettes: a Cobra Faunus with a Scarab Staff glowing red, a brown-haired human woman in a fur coat with a cigarette holder in one hand and a syringe in the other, an octopus faunus with a collection of spheres containing energy around her waist, and at the very back, we only see a man with a metallic arm and a glowing metallic red eye.
“Every plan falls apart, all of it pointless”
“Nothing gained,”
The Cobra man stabs his staff into Amber,
“All in vain,”
The fur-coat woman stands over a knocked out Neo and Roman,
“Going down.”
The squid lady has the White Fang Human imprisoned.
“Under siege,”
Mountain Glenn is overrun with insectoid Grimm approaching the main city,
“Sinking fast,
Crumbling quickly.”
The red-eyed girl watches from atop a wall and crumples up as the ground crumbles beneath her.
“Fear and shame,”
Cinder runs through the raining streets of Vale,
“Endless pain,”
Cinder’s eyes reflect the Relics of Knowledge and Creation respectively.
“Floundering!”
She blinks and reflects a silhouette of Salem looming over her.
As the music crescendoes, Cinder screams, releasing a torrent of fire from her mouth that reveals dozens of insectoid grimm with the “M” in a Hexagon looming over them.
“Vile
Abominations, all around us
Thriving
Destroying every hope of Justice”
It pans out to show Salem looking through a seer, smirking as she pulls the strings.
“Still we pray,”
Going back into the seer, we see a hooded human on the edge of a forest, with a blue amulet around their neck.
“Soon one day,
Our faith will be revived!”
Team CNMN stands at an overlook, looking at Vale thriving.
“We’ll wake to see the light!”
They walk back toward the school, and the camera pans through Vale, passing by characters during their lives on the way to its destination…
“And a Miracle,
Yeah, a Miracle,
Is waiting there,
I swear it showed up out of thin air
A Miracle
Right in front of our eyes!”
We see the Rose Family, the Rens and Nora, students past and future, and characters from across the world, all enjoying life as the song ends at a view on the Last King of Vale’s memorial.